Category Archives: Miataru

The latest update on the Miataru SailfishOS client just landed on OpenRepos.net. The latest version just introduced some baby steps. The settings page was finally activated and settings for the server data retention time were introduced.

Today, yet another update of the Miataru Client for SailfishOS went public. As the basic functionality finally works, it was time for some feature update. First of all we introduced the possibility to update the device information. Beside changing he name, choosing a particular color for the map indicator is now available.

To access the detail page, press and hold a device on the device page, and choose Details afterwards.

Finally, the chosen color will be used to display the device on the map.

The new features ware available from version v0.2-15 on.

Next improvements will probably consider the maps, displaying additional device information as well as a improved way of displaying the devices on the map.

Tonight, we managed to remove the most issues with the Miataru SailfishOS client. With v0.2-14 the location information of the device gets finally used, the location of the current device as well as other devices are displayed correctly, the map is centered to your actual location and some more minor issues got fixed.The latest version is available at OpenRepos for JailfishOS via Warehouse.

In addition, we added a page displaying some debug information. Current location, as well as the most recent requests and responses from to and from the Miataru server. By this it’s completely transparent what information is exchanged between your device and the server. Actually, this is possible because the protocol of Miataru is completely open, no secrets, traps and hidden information are sent to the server.

There are some known issues you should be aware of. However, please bear in mind at the current version it is still an alpha version of the software, though.

Communication with the Miataru server takes place only on the map page, location information is not updated in the background

Most recent requests on the Debug Information page are only displayed when the Map was used before.

Accuracy on the Debug Information page is not displayed. It is used in the requests though, as you can see in the requests.

When upgrading from an earlier version, some settings (Server URL, Devices etc.) might get lost. This is due to an arrangement of the settings database, however, it’s an alpha. We introduced some process to avoid those braking changes for the future (hopefully).

The map indicators might overlap when providing common coordinates. While two or more devices are on close together, it might look on the map as there is only one device as the indicators on the map overlap.

Said that, you should be able to use it from now on. As the basic feature now work proper, we will start pimping the app by adding more features and fancy stuff over time.

Today, we pushed version 0.2 of the SailfishOS Miataru client to the OpenRepos. From there it’s available via the Warehouse app.

First of all, Cyril Lintanff took some effort and came up with an awesome logo for the SailfishOS app.

We took the the original Miataru M from the iPhone app, and used it with well aligned with the SailfishOS guidelines. If you check the M it is a marker on a map, where the SailfishOS logo is used as contour map. All the credits for this mind blowing design belong indeed to Cyril.

With version 0.2 we fixed the recent start up issue, where as the app did start once and only once. We also introduced some kind of a database revisioning which makes it simple to update databases from any version you are currently running to any higher version. The first start might take a second or so more, however, we save some milliseconds when switching pages within the app.

In addition, thanks to Daniel for a bunch of live debugging on the Miataru server, we were able to fix some malformed requests (which ended up in new test cases for the Miataru server as well ). We now can display all devices you added to the device list on the map in the SailfishOS Cllient. Unfortunately, your own device does still stick on the coordinates of Karlsruhe, Germany, where the app is currently developed. I haven’t managed to fully access the internal position API of the Jolla phone, yet – however this is the next bit we are currently working on.

There’s no dedicated discussion forum or bug tracker yet, however the easiest way to send in any requests or questions regarding the app is the OpenRepos page of the app. It’s currently open for comments and being read frequently.

A couple of months after Daniel came up with Miataru, I finally extendet the Miataruniverse with a native SailfishOS app.

What’s all About

After Google Latitude went down, he was looking for a new solution how to exchange location information with others. Basically, Miataru let you know where other devices are. That’s all. With an unique identifier, the device submits its location on a regular base. If you know the device identifier, you can show the location on your map.

Despite all issues, we just pushed the very first version of the Miataru for SailfishOS on OpenRepos. From there, you can install and updating it using Warehouse for SailfishOS.

Early Alpha

The version available is an early alpha, with very limited functionality. It is basically intended to test the communication between the app and Miataru server as well as the OpenRepos setup. Also due to limitations in the current version of the SailfishOS SDK, the positioning functionality is not yet supported.

Updates will be released on OpenRepos based on the further progress of the SailfishOS SDK. News about the releases will be published here.

Family and Friends

Andreas Heil is a professional software engineer from Karlsruhe, Germany. He graduated in computer science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and received his doctoral degree in Web Engineering from the Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany.
He is software development manager for a big data cloud solution. He has been working in the scrum teams, including the development team for the leading software vendor for law companies in Germany. Before, he worked several years for Microsoft Germany and Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. For many years he is writing for the professional developer magazine dotnetpro in Germany.